A redistribution of the ACT Legislative Assembly's electoral boundaries will officially commence tomorrow with a call for public submissions.

The ACT Legislative Assembly's electoral boundaries are to be re-examined in preparation for the 18 October 2008 ACT election.

The ACT Redistribution Committee is publishing an official notice tomorrow inviting suggestions for boundaries and names for the ACT's electorates. A copy of the notice will appear in the Canberra Times, the ACT Electoral Commissioner, Mr Phillip Green, said today.

Any interested persons or organisations have until 8 March 2007 to make suggestions to the Redistribution Committee. Those suggestions will then be made available for public comment from 9 March 2007 until 22 March 2007.

After considering the public submissions, the Redistribution Committee will publish a proposed redistribution of the ACT into three electorates. People will then have 28 days in which to object to the proposed boundaries.

The Redistribution Committee consists of the Electoral Commissioner, Phillip Green; the ACT Planning and Land Authority, Neil Savery; the Commissioner for Surveys, Frank Blanchfield; and the Regional Director, ACT Office, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Karen Macdonald.

One key requirement for the redistribution will be ensuring that electoral enrolments in the three electorates will be within +/- 5% of the quota at the time of the next election. (The quota for the two 5 member electorates is 5/17 of the ACT total enrolment, and the quota for the 7 member electorate is 7/17 of the ACT total.)

The following table shows the enrolment totals in each current electorate at the end of January 2007 and estimated enrolment totals at the time of the next election in October 2008. This table shows that the electorate of Molonglo is expected to be around 4.38% over the quota in 2008.

Enrolment Totals

Electorate

Number of members

Enrolment January 2007

% above or below quota 2007

Projected enrolment October 2008

% above or below quota 2008

Brindabella

5

65907

-1.91%

66349

-2.91%

Ginninderra

5

65369

-2.71%

66138

-3.22%

Molonglo

7

97169

+3.30%

99861

+4.38%

When redrawing the electoral boundaries, the Redistribution Committee is also required to take account of the community of interests, including economic, social and regional interests; means of communication and travel; the physical features and area of each proposed electorate; the boundaries of existing electorates; and the boundaries of suburban divisions and sections.

The ACT Electoral Commission is making electoral enrolment statistics available to the public for making submissions. The statistics and other more detailed information are available from the Electoral Commission's office at Level 2, 12 Moore St, Civic, or from the website at www.elections.act.gov.au.